Sharing content in an instant messaging application (IM) is often a cumbersome process because it either requires users to manually copy and paste content into IM windows to share, or it requires a user to choose from an enormous list of everyone they know.
IM users share content with each other by sending the URL to the content over IM. For example: if a user wanted to share a website or a YouTube video, the user copies the URL in the address bar of the browser and pastes it into an IM window and sends it to a friend. The friend clicks on the URL and then see the same content in his or her web browser. Relying on users manually copying and pasting what is often a lengthy URL is error prone as users do not always manage to “copy” the entire URL.